Signature CLE Sponsored by:
ACC Greater New York Chapter – Signature CLE
Beyond Bitcoin: The Future of Blockchain and Other Decentralized Technologies in the World of Business
August 5, 2015
Agenda •
Overview Keith Miller, Partner and Jacob Farber, Senior Counsel - Perkins Coie LLP
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Blockchain technology Legal areas discussion
Panel Discussion: Thoughts on the use of blockchain technology Moderator: Lowell Ness, Partner, Perkins Coie LLP Panelists:
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Judd Bagley, Director of Communications, Overstock.com
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Peter Kirby, President, Factom
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Caitlin Long, Managing Director, Morgan Stanley
Q&A
Introduction Perkins Coie: Who We Are • Our Decentralized Virtual Currency Industry Group • Our blog: virtualcurrencyreport.com • Our app: Coinlaw (iOS & Android)
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Introduction Overview • Bitcoin and the evolution of blockchain technologies and distributed ledgers • Likely use cases, including banking and financial services infrastructure • The legal and regulatory landscape today (Bitcoin “1.0” monetary uses) • Legal and regulatory considerations for “2.0” blockchain technology/distributed ledgers
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Bitcoin & Blockchain Technology/Distributed Ledgers The beginning: digital money • Bitcoin was created as digital money; a form of peerto-peer digital currency • Existing financial transaction networks depend on a middleman to verify transactions and mediate disputes, which imposes costs, and requires trust • Bitcoin replaces the middleman with the users of the network and cryptographic proof to verify transactions
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Bitcoin & Blockchain Technology/Distributed Ledgers Core technology underlying Bitcoin • A peer-to-peer transaction protocol that decentralizes and distributes transactions • The public ledger (the “blockchain”) maintained by the users of the network and viewable to anyone running the open source software that time-stamps transactions • Public/private key pair addresses to publicly identify users/privately sign transactions • Cryptographic hashing • Network users verify transactions by consensus
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Bitcoin & Blockchain Technology/Distributed Ledgers Why Bitcoin matters: moving beyond money • By eliminating intermediaries, Bitcoin makes possible nearly instantaneous transactions and cost-savings • At Bitcoin’s core is the protocol, not the currency that rides on the protocol • Any digital asset can be issued and transferred on similar protocols/networks to move and track value, information, or property • Intelligence can be built into the protocol (“Smart Contracting”) 7 | perkinscoie.com
Use Cases for Blockchain Technology/Distributed Ledgers Non-monetary financial services uses • Bank and financial services infrastructure, both intra- and inter-institution • Financial transaction clearance and settlement • Rationalizing foreign exchange
• Securities issuance and trading (Overstock.com, Noble) • Eliminating T+3
• Derivatives issuance and trading …but that’s just scratching the surface… 8 | perkinscoie.com
Use Cases for Blockchain Technology/Distributed Ledgers Use cases outside of financial services • • • • • •
Supply chain management Records management and security Identity Real property transfer Intellectual property management The Internet of Things
This isn’t just about financial institutions, it’s about the Fortune 1000 9 | perkinscoie.com
Legal/Regulatory Landscape Today Regulation to date has focused on Bitcoin and its monetary uses • The principal regulatory framework is federal and state anti-money laundering (AML) law • FinCEN March 2013 Virtual Currency Guidance held “convertible” virtual currency subject to federal money transmission regulation • Most states also regulate money transmission and are working through how their statutes do and do not apply, e.g. NY’s adoption of new “BitLicense” regime
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Legal/Regulatory Landscape Today Other potentially applicable regulatory regimes • Commodities – CFTC approved the first Bitcoin/USD swap facility (TeraExchange) in Sep. 2014) • Securities – SEC addressing digital securities • Federal tax – IRS held in March 2014 that Bitcoin is property and users must report gains • Consumer protection – CFPB and FTC watching • Law enforcement – Federal prosecutors very active (esp. SDNY); focus to date has been on bad actors and fraud 11 | perkinscoie.com
Legal/Regulatory Landscape Today Lessons learned from Bitcoin 1.0 • Bitcoin and other digital currencies are “legal” • There will be a patch-work quilt of sometimescompeting regulatory approaches • Law is likely to be continue to be made through enforcement • The technology will be regulated based on what it does, not what it is
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Looking Ahead: Legal/Regulatory Considerations for “2.0” Uses Issues that will need to be addressed • What constitutes a regulated market and regulated market participants will need to be addressed • Digital assets cross jurisdictional bounds; tokens for securities, regulated commodity interests, monetary value, property, etc. can be traded over the same network • Regulators will need to decide what constitutes a regulated node on transaction networks
• Increased attention will be paid to how markets and exchanges are functioning and preventing market manipulation 13 | perkinscoie.com
Looking Ahead: Legal/Regulatory Considerations Issues, cont. • Data security and privacy will be a focal point • Wallets, private keys, and multi-sig will raise questions about what “deposit-taking” means, what level of custody should be regulated, and what does/doesn’t constitute banking • Questions about identity and how it is verified will need to be addressed (and blockchain technologies might provide the tools to do so) • Semi-public distributed ledgers raise antitrust, and conflict of interest concerns 14 | perkinscoie.com
Panel Discussion: Thoughts on the use of blockchain technology Moderator: Lowell Ness, Partner, Perkins Coie LLP Panelists: • Judd Bagley, Director of Communications, Overstock.com • Peter Kirby, President, Factom • Caitlin Long, Managing Director, Morgan Stanley
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Q&A Questions??
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